Trump’s Christmas Victory Lap, With the Fine Print Still Biting

Edition · December 26, 2017

Trump’s Christmas Victory Lap, With the Fine Print Still Biting

A holiday signing ceremony gave Trump his tax-law win, but the same day’s reporting kept the bill’s losers, the Russia cloud, and the ethics questions very much alive.

On December 26, 2017, Trump-world was still trying to cash in the political win from the GOP tax overhaul signed days earlier, but the fine print and the backlash were doing their own damage. The legislation remained a huge gift to corporations and the wealthy, while its health-care side effects and long-term budget consequences kept drawing criticism. Meanwhile, the Russia investigation and the president’s unresolved conflict-of-interest problems ensured there was no clean victory lap.

Closing take

Christmas may have brought the signing pen, but it did not deliver an exoneration. The tax bill was the headline triumph, yet the public record on that day still looked like the same old Trump operation: self-dealing anxiety, policy tradeoffs sold as miracles, and a permanent fog of scandal.

Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

Story

Trump’s Tax Win Came With a Health-Care Trap He Couldn’t Spin Away

Tax bill hangover Confidence 4/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

The White House was still celebrating the new tax law on December 26, but the bill’s other half was hanging over the victory photo like a storm cloud. Republicans had paired the corporate tax cut with the repeal of the individual mandate, a change that was expected to push more people out of insurance markets and raise future premiums. Trump sold the package as an economic jolt, but critics saw a familiar pattern: a huge gift to the top end wrapped around a policy booby trap for everyone else.

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